Cambodia Experience - 3rd day 6-5-2005

Friday 6-5-2005

I forgot to mention that last night, our translator Sach shared with the village policeman and another man at the house. The team were with him when he shared with the two men. The policeman asked him about sin and the penalty of sin. From that question, he shared with them the Good News. While he was sharing with them, the team members prayed silently for God to minister to the two men. Praise God that the two men wanted to receive Jesus as their personal Saviour. We heard the two men says the sinner’s prayer.

We woke up at about 6.30am. By that time, it was already so bright. Washed up and then took our breakfast – porridge. It tasted nice. This morning the team went to another village. We went to a school where we are to teach the kindergarten. Upon arriving at the school, we saw that the school is run by Buddhist monks except for the kindergarten. Beside the school buildings is a Buddhist pagoda with the sculpture of 5 face snakes guarding the entrance.

As we started to sing songs to the kindergarten children, other school children gathered at the classroom to watch us. We took the opportunity to play games with the other children. As it was their recess time, they are allowed to play with us. Rachel, Niger and Narong ministered to the kindergarten children while Wee Liem, Audrey, Sach and I ministered to the other children. Altogether there are about 80 children playing games with us. They really enjoyed the games. Of course they want to get the free gifts especially the balloons. Audrey almost got stampeded by the children when she threw the few remaining balloons and the children rushed towards her. When the bell rang, all the children went back to their respectives classes. All of us then ministered to the kindergarten children. By 10.30am the kindergarten was over and we went to the teacher’s house which is near the school.

At the teacher’s house, Sach started a conversation with the teacher’s husband. He is still not a believer. Sach asked me to share to the husband. Finding difficulties in communicating with the husband, I asked a few questions first to lead the conversation towards the Good News. Then I asked Sach to share the Gospel to the husband. The husband is not ready due to community pressures. We then prayed for him and the whole family. Thereafter we went back to Narong’s place for lunch. After lunch we rested for a while. Some of the children arrived at 1.00pm to study English. They have to wait for the teacher to come. While waiting, I tried to do some revision with the students using the English book. Some of them are very good and can remember well. When the teacher came at 2.00pm, he took over for a while before handing it over to the team to teach. We sang songs and Wee Liem taught them about faces and actions. The children really enjoyed the songs. By then the adults also had gathered at the house to see us teach the students. They too enjoyed the songs very much.

After the English class, we took the motorbike and went to another village. This time, I sat at a motorbike that does not have cushion at the pillion seat. It was really a torturous experience for my butt. Furthermore, we got lost along the way and had to asked for directions. By the time we reached the kindergarten, the other team members are already waiting for us and wondering what happened to us.

The team then ministered to the children. There for the first time, I saw a green patch of the paddy field. For the past two days, all I saw of the villages is dry field, dusty road and dried up ponds. But here at this kindergarten I saw a small patch of young paddy growing. Went there to have a look. Then I went back to the kindergarten and the team have already begin to introduce themselves to the children. We then teach them English actions songs which they enjoyed singing. We also played games with them. Over all we really had fun ministering to them. They also showed to us their traditional “Noi Noi” dance. Before we went back to Narong’s place, we prayed for the teacher and another old lady.

Upon reaching Narong’s house, we had to do children ministry. Using balloons and the poky ball, we play with the children. While we were playing, there’s a commotion at the bathroom. Somebody saw a snake in the bathroom. After a while, Niger, Wee Liem and I went to have a look. We wanted to kill the snake but the villagers stopped us. They caught the snake and then released it at the drain. We took our dinner and thereafter took our “under the starlight bath”. At night we did our devotion and debriefing.